


To Light Up the Darkness

by Wolfwill



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, The Inheritance Cycle - Christopher Paolini
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:40:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22745680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolfwill/pseuds/Wolfwill
Summary: Mercury Flynn is a magic-user and a thief, capable of slipping past just about any defenses mankind has created with ease. When the war against Voldemort began again, she turned her abilities towards the Order of the Phoenix, causing mayhem - but even the best can be caught, and she ends up being cast through the Veil as a terrorist. But the Veil is a gateway as much as a tool of death.The spirits feel Mercury's desperation across worlds, and so they offer her a simple deal: steal the green dragon egg from the tyrant king and bring it to the elves, and they will ensure she does not die within the Veil.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	To Light Up the Darkness

Mercury Flynn usually was not one to run away - she preferred strategic retreat, if forced - but she was also not stupid. Old Albus Dumbledore was dead, Voldemort was in charge - even if it was through a puppet - and Harry Potter, the supposed Chosen One, had vanished, with just rumors as to where he was. And even if he vanished, he had managed to gain the most wanted spot, and very few would publicly help him, so it wasn’t like he could help others.

So she ran, never staying in one place for too long, sometimes camping out in her Animagus form for a few days, turning back to cause some trouble, stealing supplies and even going as far as setting fire to the houses of the well-known Voldemort supporters.

Mercury may have been a criminal, but she had morals, and she never strayed over that line.

Despite their relative stupidity, the Death Eaters were never far behind, always finding her in the end. Either the Order had a traitor - another, besides that blasted Snape - or there was some sort of spell they were using to keep up with her.

Then she got captured, and everything changed.

They couldn’t take her wand because of the enchantments on her holster - special enchantments, ones that had taken years to figure out - so they kept her hands tied with rope and metal, arms behind her back so she couldn’t do magic by reaching her wand or changing forms.

The Veil was bigger than she had thought, an archway of blackness filled with whispering grey that outstretched towards Mercury. She let her eyes flicker away but did not move her head, looking around the Death Chamber.

It looked like Mercury had finally run out of luck. There would be no more heists and narrow escapes.

“You won’t win in the end.” Mercury spoke past the heaviness in her limbs from a lack of sleep and the pounding in her head from where she’d been slammed into the ground. “Your precious master won’t live forever.”

Yaxley stepped forward and backhanded her - Mercury was slightly surprised. Most purebloods didn’t like resorting to physical violence - they felt like it was beneath them. “The words of a terrorist mean nothing.”

Mercury smirked, dark eyes glinting. “Then why do people listen to you?”

His eyes filled with rage, and he looked ready to hit her again. “You won’t be laughing when you’re dead, girl.”

Mercury shrugged. “I’ll be laughing at your monumental stupidity.”

She was manhandled up and forced towards the Veil. Despite her devil-may-care attitude, Mercury was scared, though she did not show it and give the Death Eaters the satisfaction. Pain she could deal with, pain she could coop with. But death was an unknown variable, and Mercury had no idea what was awaiting her.

Everything was cold. Mercury was floating, and she could feel fingers touching her body as she drifted past. She could hear whispers, voices pleading with her to stay. A part of her wanted to, a longing that was not normal, a longing she did not understand.

“If this is what death feels like, I’m going to get bored quickly.”

“You are not dead yet, little witch.” The voice boomed, coming from everywhere and nowhere. If Mercury was capable of controlling her own movements, maybe she would have twisted, dropping into a combat stance. Maybe she would have fled. “But staying here any longer will kill you.”

“Are you a ghost?” What else could it be? Maybe a spirit of someone long dead, someone who had been killed in the Veil.

Mercury could feel the amusement. “No, little witch, I am not. I have a proposition for you, one I think you cannot ignore.”

“I probably could but it likely wouldn’t end all that well for me.” If Mercury wasn’t dead, then maybe she had a chance to escape the Veil.

More amusement. “You're a thief with a heart. The best I have seen in just about any world. We need you to steal something. Do this, and bring it to those who will safeguard it, and we will allow you to remain in our world.”

Mercury had a sneaking suspicion that she was talking to a being that was extremely powerful, one far more so than anything she had encountered before. It would explain why the whispers had gone silent, would explain why the being would have the power it claimed to have. “What would I be stealing?”

“A dragon egg.”

It was ridiculous how easily Mercury was able to slip into this castle and find what had to be the treasure room. Part of it may have been because this tyrant king had no defenses against her type of magic, but another part of it may have been because people like him did not expect for someone to actually steal from his seat of power.

The guards could be sent stumbling away with a Confundus. She used a Disillusionment Charm combined with spells to hide her footsteps and scent, and a modified Four-Point spell to actually get her there.

“Not bad, though it is gaudy.” Mercury looked around. “Alright. Let’s do this.” At the base of the gloves she wore on each wrist was a cuff of silver, carefully carved with dozens of runes. Tapping these together and sending a pulse of magic running through them caused them to glow faintly, and she pulled them apart slowly. The result was best described as a screen that hovered there in between her wrists. It started scanning everything, giving her estimated values based on what it was made of.

The entire thing did that based on what she had encountered before. Her father had made the original, but she had added onto it. It was a complicated piece of magic that she didn’t actually have a name for.

After a few minutes, it tagged a chest as a possible place for the dragon egg. Stepping forward and allowing the screen to fade away, she sent a pulse of magic to make sure there were no traps and the like. When nothing happened, she opened the chest.

“That’s a dragon egg alright.” Green, just like the being had said, threads of white throughout the whole thing. “Let’s get you out of here, yes?” Very carefully, Mercury lifted it up and wrapped it in a cloth, before slipping it into a special silk bag that was enchanted to prevent damage to whatever was inside. Considering she was sticking this into her jacket pocket - which had an undetectable extension charm that she’d been using for years and was probably full of dangerous things, it was better safe than sorry.

Anyone else would have left right then and there. Mercury took one look and realized she could easily screw this king over for a good long while. So she proceeded to check for any traps or spells on just about every book in the room before slipping them into a different pocket, along with a lot of strange items, even a sword with a iridescent blade. She also found several chests with strange, faceted, gemstone-like rocks. Mercury’s instincts were screaming, so she repeated what she had done with the egg and shoved one only slightly larger than the egg in her pocket.

“Time to go.” Mercury had already tested her luck. She did one final pass over before pulling a simple rock out of the pocket of her jeans. With a muttered word, the Portkey yanked her away, spitting her out in the forest she had woken up in.

Mercury waited to get a good distance away from the city - to make sure she was not being followed - before stopping and making sure all her stuff was secure. She touched the pocket with the dragon egg. “Hold in there little guy. I’ll make sure you get somewhere safe.” Then she stepped forward and began to change.

Hair and skin became feathers, bones became lighter and shifted. Within the span of a handful of seconds, Mercury had become a Peregrine Falcon. She shifted in place a few times before taking flight, wheeling towards the forest that was apparently home of the elves.

Arya knew right away that the falcon following them was not a normal bird, though she chose to say nothing at first, merely waiting to see what it would do. After nearly two days of the bird following them, it landed on the ground, hopping over to Arya - and much to the shock of Eragon, the dwarves, and to a lesser extent, Saphira, began to change, the falcon becoming a human woman in her mid-twenties.

A woman who looked exhausted, but her dark eyes met Arya’s green without flinching. She ignored the rest, attention focused solely on Arya - no, that wasn’t quite true. She was aware of the others, but was acting as if they did not matter.

“I took something from the king that the elves might want.” Her accent was foreign, not from any place Arya recognized, and her clothes were strange. “Though I am not comfortable revealing what out loud.”

Arya raised a hand to cut off whatever Eragon was about to say, keeping her eyes on the woman. “If this is some sort of trap, you will not like the consequences.”

The woman dipped her head in response. “I understand. If it’ll make you feel better, I’ll allow you into my mind to confirm what I say.”

Arya wasted no time - if it was indeed an ambush, they needed to be prepared. But it wasn’t. The woman’s mind was structured differently than any she had known, her mental defenses organized in such a way that she could keep them up without thinking about it - there would be no passive reading of her mind.

Basic memories, simple things, were at the forefront, but as the woman slowly opened her mind, more personal memories, more important memories were what she saw. A flash of a man - her father, a thick beard and a booming, cheerful laugh - and a woman - her mother, dying in an attack. Murdered. Arya saw training, magic unlike anything she had ever seen, a world so unlike this one. A girl raised to become a thief, to systematically dismantle the corrupt system who had allowed her mother’s murderers to walk free.

She saw the start of a war, of the woman turning to a rebel group. Arya saw the woman being captured and thrown through something horrible, and she saw the conversation between the woman and what had to have been a spirit.

Arya saw the woman steal the green dragon egg with relative ease - and plundering the king’s vault - before fleeing. Everything after was that, up until she found the group.

Arya withdrew from her mind, face not showing the complete and utter joy that had infused her very being. The thief swayed once before passing out, and even as she did Eragon caught her.

“Who - Arya, was she telling the truth?”

“Yes.” Arya moved over to the thief. She’d collapsed from exhaustion, mental and physical, but she would be fine, given a few days. 

“So what did she steal?” Orik asked gruffly.

Arya shook her head. “What she took is far too dangerous to reveal out loud without being in the safety of Ellesmera, and I would like the Queen to know first.” 

This could not be allowed to get out, not yet.

Mercury woke up maybe a day later, still tired but not about to die from exhaustion, on the back of a horse and being held in place by someone. Who, she had no idea, and she just barely opened her eyes, keeping her breathing the deep, even breaths of sleep.

“That will work for humans, but not for elves.” A voice murmured, and she abandoned the ruse, opening her eyes fully. “Where is it hidden?”

“My pocket.” She replied, just as softly. “It’s enchanted to carry more than it seems, but only I can reach into it, even if I die.”

“A brilliant defense.” The voice - it was that female elf - murmured, sounding just the slightest bit impressed. 

“I’ll pass it over, but not here. Honestly don’t know if I have the strength to move much right now.” Just speaking was exhausting, and it was impressive that she managed not to slur her words like a drunk. “My name is Mercury, by the way.”

“Arya.” The elf seemed to pause before continuing. “There was no other one?”

“Just this one. You may want to know that any trying to reach into my pockets will likely lose a few fingers, if not their whole hand. But I will hand it over, just not here.”

“Understandable. I am rather surprised you did not sleep any longer.”

“Oh, I’m about to pass back out. G’night.”

The next time she woke up was two days after that, and she was in a bed. For a moment Mercury thought she was home, and tried to bury herself in the blankets. Then she smelt pine trees and realized she was most definitely not home. In that next instant she sat up, magic building up as she prepared to fight or flee - and being a bird Animagus certainly brought new meaning to the words fight or flight.

“Easy.” It was that elf, Arya, who looked vaguely amused. “You are very fast for a human.”

Anyone else would have taken it as racism. But Mercury had followed them long enough to realize that elves were far faster than humans, who must have seemed like snails in comparison.

“Thank you.” Was what she said. “I assume you were told to watch me until I can produce what I stole.”

She tilted her head once and nodded. “Yes. Though only two others know precisely what you have besides me - the Queen and… someone whom this would directly affect.”

“Right. Please allow me to clean up and eat before meeting anyone. I feel better, though a rumbling stomach does not make a good first impression.”

Mercury felt like Arya was resisting the urge to roll her eyes. “We are not going to starve you, though please avoid taking forever.”

Mercury grinned. “No day long soaks in a bathtub? Pity… sorry. Force of habit. I’ll try to avoid annoying an elven queen.”

It felt glorious to actually be able to clean herself off without worrying about being found, though the food was lackluster. It was good, and Mercury wasn’t complaining, but she needed a certain amount of meat - you did not have to follow the diet of your Animagus form exactly, but you couldn’t starve a carnivore of meat. Only after did she follow Arya, throwing on her jacket and drawing it close, pulling on her hood at the elf’s request.

“Your home is beautiful. A little too calm for my tastes.”

“You do seem the type of thrive on mayhem.”

Mercury shrugged. “Just a little.”

Whatever Mercury was expecting the Elven Queen to look like, this wasn’t it. She side-eyed Arya. “Right. I know what you want.” She reached into her jacket pocket, pulling out the bundle that held the egg and unwrapping it slowly.

The male elf looked overjoyed in an instant, though he did not touch it as Mercury carefully placed it on the table. The Queen had the same look for a brief instant, before her eyes narrowed in on Mercury.

“I was told you stole many other things from Galbatorix.”

Mercury nodded. “Books, mostly, and some interesting looking things. A sword - do not ask how that fits in my pocket.” She pulled out said sword, and passed it over. The male elf sighed, looking sad.

“I am glad you were able to return the sword of one of my fallen brethren. Rhunon will be thrilled that at least one of them survived the Fall. Thank you.”

Slightly startled, Mercury shrugged. “It was nothing. There was also this.”

The stone caused both the male elf and the Queen to jerk back. “So my thoughts were true. If you will excuse me, I must bring this where this cannot affect anyone. Who knows what has happened in the past one hundred years.” The male elf carefully cradled the stone and vanished.

The Queen turned to Mercury, who resisted the urge to step back. “Thank you, truly. I suspect you have no idea just how much this means to us.”

Mercury shook her head. “Where I am from, dragons are truly little more than beasts with a fondness for eating humans. The really smart ones, known as High Dragons, ended up dying out over a thousand years ago. Then again, elves don’t exist where I am from, so this world is already very different. Why is the egg so important?”

The Queen stared at the green egg, hope very clear in her gaze. “Dragons are bound to elves and humans through the Dragon Rider Pact. For a very long time they acted as peacekeepers and teachers, but they were betrayed from within. This egg will hatch to a chosen Rider, and will be one of the last free dragons in Alagaesia.”

“One of the last dragons at all.” Arya added softly. “Galbatorix killed any dragon who did not side with him. The thirteen that did are long dead, as are their Riders, and his dragon is bound to him through dark magic.”

“I’m going to take a wild guess and say that the dragons here are smart?”

“Extremely. They would have had to have been to help form the treaty that created the Dragon Riders.”

Mercury nodded. “Then I hope this little one finds its Rider soon, for everyone’s sake.” She smiled grimly. “It isn’t as if I am going home anytime soon, and this Galbatorix is exactly the kind of person I hate. How can I help?”

Both looked surprised. “Stealing the egg was one thing - the spirits were going to save your life in exchange. With your skill in magic, you could easily hide. Why fight a war that is not yours?” Arya asked.

“Why not? I did not stand aside against the Death Eaters, and I won’t stand aside against a tyrant king.”

The Queen sent her a look of surprised approval. “I would suggest waiting until Arya returns to the Varden, so that we can vouch for you.”

“You would do that? Huh. I’m too used to the idea of government leaders getting something from someone and then dumping them to the side.”

“Elves keep acousting me.” Mercury grumbled, practically throwing herself down next to Arya. “Word spread quickly.”

“It will not spread outside of Ellesmera however.” Arya said with certainty. “Our dwarven guest has sworn in the Ancient Language not to tell anyone, just yet, as has Eragon. I am honestly surprised you have not had a visit from Saphira.”

“Who?”

“The blue dragon - Eragon’s bonded. She was very happy to hear another dragon is free of Galbatorix.”

“I would assume so.” Mercury frowned. “Is it simply the act of retrieving the egg that has caused the elves to be so… respectful?”

“You managed to increase our likelihood of surviving and winning this war. That is no small thing.” Arya leaned back. “If you are to stay until I leave, then you will be experiencing the Blood-Oath Ceremony. You will need something to present.”

Arya’s laugh at Mercury’s startled expression was among the most beautiful things the witch had ever heard, even if it was at her expense.

Saphira did manage to corner Mercury briefly, expressing her gratitude - which was followed by Mercury doing her best at out flying a dragon. Other than that, her time was spent following Arya like a chick or sitting in the elven smith Rhunon’s work space. That led to some impromptu lessons in swordplay, and the days began to pass quickly.

It was somewhere during this period that Mercury realized she knew what she could do for this… Blood-Oath Ceremony. It was possibly a stupid idea, but Mercury had plenty of stupid ideas. A lot of stupid ideas, most being quite scary for all those involved, Mercury included.

Eh. It’d work out. Hopefully.

It was interesting, seeing what every elf brought forward, as well as that kid, Eragon, and that dwarf Orik. At Mercury’s turn she stepped forward, tossing her hair back to hide her nerves.

“I honestly couldn’t think of what to do. I don’t dance, and I am most certainly not artistically inclined. But I am good at making things that have a practical use, and I figured a people at war might have a use for something like this, something based off of two ideas from my homeland.” She held up a metal sphere maybe six inches in diameter, which was covered in hundreds of runes, carefully etched into the surface. “My people created the Pensieve, which can be used to store memories so that others may view them. Nonmagicals have a habit of burying containers filled with articles of the past so that those of the future may view them. This was created to hold as many memories as you deem useful, ones freely given. Should, by chance, this war be lost, then those of the future can learn from said loss. Should the war be won, you can use it to turn those of the future away from the same path that caused this war.”

The elf called Oromis clasped his hands together, eyes glinting with an emotion Mercury couldn’t read. “A noble sentiment.”

“I was expecting to be yelled at.” Mercury admitted.

The ceremony after passed in a dizzying blur, until two elf women - twins - disrobed and began to dance. The dragon they summoned was beautiful, a living memory of a dying race. Whatever it did caused Eragon to tip over face-first, then it turned on Mercury.

What it said Mercury wouldn’t remember later. She did remember a burning pain and being driven to her knees, something falling into her lap. She remembered being led away by someone - Arya and Oromis, actually…

… and she remembered a baby dragon with eyes like molten gold, staring at her with utter love and adoration, mind curling around hers as if they’d never been apart.

**Author's Note:**

> I imagined Mercury's scanner as sort of a mix between Sombra's and the one Ryder uses in Mass Effect: Andromeda. But I had no idea where I was going with this - it started when I should have been writing an 800 word essay for class, and kind of grew. What do you think?


End file.
